This invention pertains to maintaining an adequate supply of one or more materials, parts, products which are consumed on a regular basis.
For example, in assembly operations, certain products, parts, and pieces which are used on a regular basis may be fabricated at the same facility where an assembly is assembled; while other parts and/or pieces which are used in assembly operations on a regular basis are ordered from outside vendors. If an assembler runs out of even small or minor parts and/or pieces, such as nuts, bolts, washers, screws, brackets, bearings, or the like, some or all of the entire assembly operation may have to be shut down until such time as a replenishment supply of the respective part or piece is received, inspected, cataloged in, and ready to be used.
As an example of current practice, small parts regularly used in assembly operations are commonly stored in plastic bins or metal bins. A typical bin has an open top and a partially open front wall. A worker on the assembly line can retrieve parts from a given such bin in the rack through the open front and/or top of the respective bin. Each bin has a label or sticker, typically mounted on the front wall of the bin. The label or sticker has a readable bar code which can be read by a bar code scanner/reader, as well as having text which corresponds to at least some of the information identified by the bar code. The bar code identifies the particular Stock Keeping Unit (SKU) of the piece/part which is to be available from that particular bin. The respective text on the label or sticker provides the same or similar information as is stored in the bar code. Accordingly, the approved content of the bin can be determined either electronically by reading the bar code, or manually by a person reading the text.
Such bins are commonly stored/housed, side-by-side in a rack at or near the assembly operation. A typical such rack has multiple rows of shelving. Bins to hold/contain the different parts are positioned side by side on the respective shelves. The fronts of the bins are facing toward the work spaces of workers who draw parts from the bins. Thus, a plurality of rows of bins is arranged on the respective shelves, and the bins face toward the work space of the respective worker's who draw parts from the respective bins. A given rack, accordingly presents an X-Y matrix/array of bins to one or more workers, where each bin has a specific identity linked to a specific part/product which is to be temporarily stored/housed in that particular bin, and where a worker can draw parts from the array of bins in the process of assembling products; with confidence that the correct part for the then-current assembly step is in the bin labeled for that particular part.
The issue being addressed by this invention is the systems and methods used to replenish the parts/pieces in the bins in order to make sure that the parts/pieces needed for the assembly operation are always available in a given bin space when and as needed, and that each bin contains only parts for which that bin is labeled, while still controlling/limiting the inventory of parts/pieces in the respective bins.
Failure of timely replenishment of parts to the correct bins can result in lost productivity on the assembly line. However, having more inventory than necessary in the proximity of the assembly operation imposes unnecessary additional fixed investment/capital cost on the end user entity/company which is carrying out the assembly operation. In addition, the additional inventory takes up valuable space in the manufacturing facility.
In medical operations, certain products have relatively short shelf lives, and must be replenished in a timely manner before expiration of the shelf life of the respective product. As an example, products comprising, or derived from, human blood have known shelf lives; however, because of issues of availability of the raw material whole blood, and the time necessary to obtain, process, test, confirm, catalog, and label the raw material and the resulting consumable product, it is essential to have such products on hand when the need for such products arises.
The issue in the medical community is the systems and methods used to replenish e.g. blood supplies. Failure of timely replenishment can result in loss of human life.
And while the medical community has redundant communications systems continuously connecting various operating facilities to each other, further redundancy may be obtained by having the ability to store certain need information and product use information, at a site where products are expected to be used/consumed; and then, if/when such continuous communications connections fail or are otherwise out of service, to transmit such need information and/or product information, to a supplier/vendor over the internet as connection to the internet becomes available.
Referring again to industrial assembly operations, two or more bins of parts/pieces may be used for each SKU. Where two or more bins are so used, it is known for assembly workers to first use all the parts, pieces from a first bin, to then toss the empty bin into a receptacle, and to then start drawing parts/pieces from the second bin while awaiting shipment, arrival of replenishment parts, pieces for the first bin. Periodically, a vendor service representative comes to the using/assembly facility and uses e.g. a hand-held scanner to read the bar code tags on each bin in the receptacle, thus to read all of the empty bins in the receptacle. The tags so read are then communicated to a computer at an order processing facility, optionally a vendor facility, optionally to or through a cloud computer, where the bar code tags which were read become source information at the vendor facility, and authorization for processing orders and shipping product to the assembly operation customer/user from one or more source locations.
Where a single bin is used for each SKU, it is known to place each bin on a scale. The assembly workers observe the weights of the respective scales and when the weight on a given scale, representing e.g. a single respective bin or SKU, falls below an identified threshold weight, an assembly worker manually places an order for replenishment parts.
In the alternative, an optical beam can be directed across the bin to an optical sensor, and when the quantity of parts in the bin is low enough to expose the sensor to the beam, the sensor can initiate a signal, such as a light on the front of the bin, to alert a worker that additional parts/pieces should be ordered for the respective bin.
Also where a single bin is used for at least some of the parts/pieces, it is known for a vendor service representative to periodically come to the assembly facility and observe the levels of parts in the bins. The service representative uses his/her judgment, and knowledge of rates of use of parts/pieces from the respective bin, or the historical record of use rates from that bin, to manually, mentally, subjectively determine which bins need replenishment parts/pieces. The service representative then uses a scanner to manually scan the respective bins needing replenishment, and transmits the scanned information to a computer at an order-processing facility where the order is processed and shipped.
As another alternative, where a single bin is used for each SKU, it is known to place a strip of horizontally-extending e.g. brightly colored tape on the inside, or outside, of the bin at a predetermined elevation on the bin. When the level of parts/pieces in the bin drops below the strip of tape, an assembly worker manually enters an order for replenishment product/parts/pieces.
A common issue in all of the above known systems and processes is that replenishment of parts, or pieces, or products, depends on a worker, whether an assembly worker or a vendor service representative, periodically, mentally remembering to make, and making, a determination regarding which bins need replenishment parts or which particular products need to be ordered.
An additional issue is that, in some of the above known processes, several days can pass between workers making such determinations, whereby a period of time passes between the time when a bin first shows a need for replenishment, and the time when a worker actually recognizes that replenishment is needed.
Another issue where a single bin is used for a particular SKU is that product/parts/pieces from a given order, shipment are mingled with product/parts/pieces from a previous order, shipment. Where it is determined that some of the parts/pieces were defective, enough to justify/require a product recall, or a warranty claim, the mingling of parts/pieces from multiple deliveries of parts/pieces, to bins, prevents the party responsible for assembly operations from determining, with a high degree of accuracy, the time period in which defective assemblies were being assembled using the defective parts/pieces. Accordingly, in order to have a high degree of certainty that all of the defective assemblies have been recalled, or identified for warranty purposes, the party responsible for the assembly operation recalls assemblies which were assembled both substantially before and substantially after the defective parts were known to be in the respective bin.
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide a system wherein the time period in which defective parts were being used from a given bin can be identified with a high degree of certainty without also including substantial time periods where defective parts/pieces may not have been used.
It is further desirable to provide a more timely transmission of information to the vendor order-processing facility that replenishment of a given product SKU is needed.
It is also desirable to provide improved methods of collecting and transmitting information to the vendor order-processing facility indicating that replenishment of a given product SKU is needed.
It is also desirable to provide systems and methods for collecting and transmitting replenishment order information, which systems are less reliant on human judgment regarding which bins/SKU's need replenishment.
It is further desirable to provide systems and methods which better segregate and track replenishment parts, by lot number, to the bin level of distribution so as to be able to better, more narrowly, bracket the number of assemblies which should be recalled, or identified for warranty purposes, when a determination is made that certain ones of the parts used from a given bin may have been defective.
It is also desirable to provide, as part of the systems and methods, a back-up procedure whereby an order can be manually entered into the ordering system.